Daily News-November-14-Tuesday-2000

  • junta's new orders prohibiting forced labour is to remain secret
  • India denied entry of Burmese pro-democracy leader
  • Presence of Prisons minister sparks protest
  • Alert sounded over Canadian funds pouring into burma
  • Chinese police arrest Burmese soldier in drug bust
  • Thai poll campaigners join Wa in drug deals to buy votes
  • Regional Drug Law Enforcement Agency Heads Meet in Burma
  • Five Burmese troops killed in clash with Shan fighters
  • Burmese leader's visit points to a ''pragmatic'' India
  • India NEEPCO set to sell power to Bangladesh, Burma
  • Burma laments lack of cooperation in fight against drugs

    • Burmese junta's new orders prohibiting forced labour is to remain secret, says ICFTU
    Brussels November 13 2000 (ICFTU OnLine):

    Burma's ruling State Peace & Development Council (SPDC) will not provide the country's national media with the text of new directives allegedly outlawing forced labour, "since many Burmese people are illiterate and are too poor to own radios", a military junta spokesman said today. "Instead", he said, "the directive has been sent to police stations all over the country".

    The directive, known as "Supplementary Order to Order 1/1999" , was presented last week by Rangoon as a major concession to the International Labour Office (ILO), which has demanded that Burma amend its laws allowing for the exaction of forced labour, eradicate the practice and punish those guilty of imposing it.

    The startling announcement came in a fax sent this morning by SPDC spokesman Lt. Col. Hla Min to a foreign radio correspondent in Bangkok, according to the underground Federation of Trade Unions - Burma (FTUB), which maintains an office there.

    Lt. Col Hla Mins's fax was in response to FTUB attempts to ascertain that the "Supplementary Order" had been made available to the population via the country's mass media. On Sunday 12th November, a Voice of America (Burmese section) reporter spoke to major Burmese newspapers and to the domestic service of the national radio station. None had heard of either Order 1/1999, a similar directive issued last year under ILO pressure, or the recent "Supplementary Order" dated 1st November 2000.

    An official of the Myanmar News Agency - Radio section who was on duty on November 1, denied having heard anything about government instructions against forced labour. The FTUB-VOA inquiry with the Kyemone [Mirror] newspaper and the "New Light of Myanmar", the junta's official mouthpiece newspaper, drew a similar blank.

    According to the Geneva-based Burma Peace Foundation, "serious doubts now exist as to the whether the junta has produced a Burmese version of the "Orders" at all".

    In his letter to ILO Director General Juan Somavia of November 1, Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt listed Myanmar's Official Gazette as one of the 18 authorities and institutions which had received the "Supplementary Order".

    Meanwhile, in Brussels today the ICFTU said "fresh evidence of forced labour is pouring in from Burma's border areas". It said the latest testimony it had received was that of a textile worker from Rangoon, who escaped on Friday November 10 2000 from forced labour as a porter for the 203rd Light Infantry Battalion, based in Karen State, on the Burma-Thai border.

    For further details please contact ICFTU ++.32.477.28.63.04 (GSM) or FTUB, Information Secretary ++.66.1.668.38.58
    India denied entry of Burmese pro-democracy leader
    New Delhi, November 12, 2000
    Mizzima News Group (www.mizzima.com)

    India has denied the entry of a Burmese pro-democracy leader despite the fact that its embassy in Thailand had issued him a valid visa. Dr. Naing Aung, former Chairman of the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) and a senior leader of the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB) was not allowed to enter the country yesterday.

    Dr. Naing Aung, with six-months visa to India, arrived early yesterday morning with Air India. As he reached the Immigration Counter, the sitting official informed him that his name is on the black list.

    Dr. Naing Aung was detained at the Indira Gandhi International airport for the whole day and night till he was sent back to Thailand this morning by a Thai Airway flight. During the detention at airport, he was not allowed to contact outside. His visa was cancelled and he had to buy his own flight ticket back to Thailand.

    The opposition groups based in India said that Dr. Naing Aung was coming to India for a political lobbying trip as he is a senior member of the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB), an umbrella organization of pro-democracy groups and ethnic organizations fighting against the Burmese junta.

    This incident is coincident with the imminent visit of a prominent Burmese military leader to India next week. General Maung Aye, who is the second most senior leader in the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) of Burma, is visiting India from November 14 to 21 along with a 16-member high-level delegation. General Maung Aye is also chief of the armed forces in Burma.
    Presence of Prisons minister sparks protest
    source : Burma courier

    Based on news from Mizzima, The Hindu and Reuters: Updated to Nov 11, 2000

    NEW DELHI -- More than a hundred Burma activists protested the visit to India this week of the junta's Home Affairs Minister Tin Hlaing with a rally staged near the Parliament buildings.

    Shouting slogans and holding placards, the demonstrators marched along Parliament Street, until Delhi police stopped them in front of the Parliament Police Station. The activists, who rallied for more than an hour, accused the minister responsible for Burma's police and prisons of complicity in the detention of more than 1,500 political prisoners in the country.

    "Thousands of prisoners die every year in more than hundred prison-labor camps across the country under inhuman treatment and the Burmese Home Minister is responsible for that," one of demonstrators told Mizzima News.

    In an interview with a national newspaper, The Hindu, Tin Hlaing denied that his government's close relationship with China kept it from sustaining "balanced" relations with New Delhi. He described the relationship between the two countries as "very good and cordial".

    India stepped up diplomatic efforts with Rangoon after reports of Chinese naval forces in the Bay of Bengal and of the possibility that China would establish a military presence in Burma. India has been training Burmese military personnel, Col Tin Hlaing said, adding that India had a lot to offer in upgrading information technology capability in his country.

    Questioned on the issue of the restrictions placed on NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her frequent house arrests, Tin Hlaing said that authorities in his country were "working on the issue closely with United Nations officials'' on the matter. Suu Kyi was treated with "great regard and consideration", the Home Affairs Minister said.

    In related news, it was announced in Rangoon this week that the military junta's second in command, General Maung Aye, would pay an official visit to India later this month. Indian embassy officials in the Burmese capital said the visit would last six or seven days.

    Gen. Maung Aye's visit is the first high-level contact between the countries in the last ten years. Besides having discussions on enhancing border trade and cooperation for curbing illegal border activities including drug trafficking and insurgency, the two countries will sign a credit line of $15 million for purchase of Indian goods.
    Alert sounded over Canadian funds pouring into burma
    Courier News Service

    OTTAWA -- Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB) has issued a nationwide alert following publication of news this week of a dramatic increase in Canadian investment in Burma.

    According to a recently released report of Burma's Central Statistical Organization (CSO), Canadian investment in Burma jumped by US$ 21.45 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2000-1. This amounted to roughly a third of new foreign investment ploughed into Burma during the period from the beginning of April to the end of June.

    The amount of foreign capital invested in the three month period outstripped the total invested in the country in all of 1998-9 (US$ 29.5 million) and 1999-2000 (US$ 55.6 million). Investments from three countries in the three month period -- South Korea (US$ 30.21 million), Canada (US$ 21.45 million and Malaysia (US$ 9.83 million) -- amounted to just under 96% of the total foreign investment in the period.

    CFOB said the figures showed that Canada was now a major investor in Burma and voiced its concern "that Canadian companies are free to invest in countries where the military engage in violence, torture and rape to stay in power, and even to work openly with such regimes". It called on the Canadian government to put sharper teeth into its program of selective economic measures instituted in August 1997 with regard to Burma and it urged Canadians to make their views known to their elected representatives and the government.

    A staffer at the CFOB office in Ottawa told the Burma Courier that there was still no definitive information about what company or companies had made new investments in the country during the period covered by the report. Sources indicated that it most likely resulted from Canadian interest in Burma's mining sector.

    It has been suggested that the investment could be funding for an expansion at the Myanmar Ivanhoe Copper mine located near Monywa. The mine is 50% owned by Ivanhoe Mines of Vancouver. But Ivanhoe officials have publicly stated that the current expansion at the mining company's solvent extraction plant is being financed through cash flow from ongoing operations of the joint venture company rather than from any new investment.

    Clearly, the Ivanhoe mine is beginning to have a positive effect on Burma's foreign exchange earnings. A Xinhua news item this week reported that base metal exports in the first six months of calendar 2000 doubled to a level of 14,000 tons compared with the similar period last year. The lion's share, if not all of the increase, was due to export of copper cathode produced by the Ivanhoe mine. In the first six months of 2000 this amounted to 13,450 tonnes. In the corresponding period in 1999, export sales were only beginning to materialize after the mine reached full production at the beginning of the year.

    The only other base metals exported in small quantities from Burma are refined lead, zinc concentrate and tin and tungsten. Antinomy production from an upgraded concentrator at Kalaw is also beginning to come on line. It will be exported to Thailand.
    Chinese police arrest Burmese soldier in drug bust
    Source : AP

    BEIJING, Nov 13, 2000-- Police in southwestern China arrested a Burmese soldier after finding 66 kilograms (about 150 pounds) of drugs hidden inside a jeep, the government's Xinhua News Agency said Monday.

    The arrest came on Sunday, when police in the city of Lincang found the drugs - a form of methamphetamine known on the street as ice - stashed in the jeep's gas tank and tires, Xinhua said.

    The soldier was not identified. Lincang is near China's border with Burma and the so-called Golden Triangle, an area also including parts of Thailand and Laos that is notorious as a center for global narcotics production.

    Meanwhile, a court in Beijing on Monday sentenced a 31-year-old Chinese man to death for trying to sell heroin, Xinhua said. Police arrested Han Youfu in December at a hotel in Beijing. A search of his room turned up 3.5 kilograms (about eight pounds) of the drug, the report said.
    Thai poll campaigners join Wa in drug deals to buy votes
    Source : Bangkok Post

    Canvassers for some politicians are helping the United Wa State Army flood the market with methamphetamines to raise funds to buy votes.

    The canvassers, mainly in the North and in Bangkok, are facilitating the smuggling operations of the world's largest producers of drugs, who are offering them credit, authorities say.

    The Wa have seized the opportunity to boost their market by banking on the need of some candidates to raise money ahead of the general election.

    Theeraphat Santimathaneedol, deputy secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, confirmed the alliance and said the Wa were boosting output to meet demand.

    The agency was aware of the role of canvassers and was keeping a close watch. Scores of drug dealers have been killed in recent months in the North, as conflicts of interest intensified.

    A senior narcotics police officer who requested anonymity, said investigators were aware of the role of canvassers in the drug trade and were keeping a number of them under surveillance.

    Thamnu Sirising, director of ONCB's northern office, said the inflow of speed was likely to surge ahead of Jan 6, and there were signs canvassers were involved.

    The link between producers and canvassers has come to light amid growing indications money will again be a decisive factor in the contest.

    In Nakhon Ratchasima, a researcher predicted that up to eight billion baht will be dumped in the Northeast.

    Somkiat Pongpaiboon of the Rajabhat Institute said sums of up to 100 million baht were likely to be dumped in big constituencies, particularly in the districts of Nakhon Ratchasima, Khon Kaen, Udon Thani, Ubon Ratchathani, Amnat Charoen, Buri Ram and Chaiyaphum.

    Candidates are expected to dump 50 million baht each in the region's 137 single-seat constituencies, said Mr Somkiat, who was confident gift-giving would fade after the dissolution as they could be used as evidence.

    In Muang district of Nakhon Ratchasima, a candidate needs at least 80,000 votes and 8,000 campaigners to win what will be a two-horse race, he said.

    An organised network of campaigners would be needed to ensure the money goes to the desired target and not to the authorities.

    While voters would be offered 100-500 baht, campaigners would pocket as much as 5,000 per meeting, not to mention the fact they had to be dined and wined too.

    "A campaigner will be responsible for 10 voters. In the past a campaigner was supposed to handle 50," said Mr Somkiat. "Money will decide the result but candidates can't afford to be careless."

    Based on these figures, he said, parties would spend as much as 20 billion baht nationwide. "With 400 constituencies, 20 billion baht would do. In Thailand, it is cash democracy," he said.

    Mr Somkiat called on the Election Commission to red card cheating candidates before Jan 6 so as to deter others.

    "If five or 10 are red-carded, others will think twice before breaking the law," he said. "Make them know heads will roll. The evidence is there but the question is if the commission and its local panels have the guts to do it."

    Calling on voters to report violations, he said: "Don't take the money and simply shut up. Political reform won't go anywhere unless you co-operate."

    Sawat Chotepanich, an election commissioner, said evidence against some candidates indicated the reform drive has passed many politicians by.

    In Nakhon Ratchasima, one party has given out emergency flood relief bags the government distributed three months ago. Elsewhere, clothes, rice, watches, cash and even life insurance policies were being handed out.

    Provincial panels have been compiling evidence and would use it when the time was right, he said.
    Regional Drug Law Enforcement Agency Heads Meet in Burma
    Source : XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

    Rangoon (Nov. 14)-- The 24th meeting of heads of national drug law enforcement agencies of the Asia-Pacific region opened here Tuesday.

    The four-day meeting, organized by the U.N. Drug Control Program (UNDCP) and hosted by Burma, is attended by delegates from nearly 20 countries from the Asia-Pacific region including China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Azerbaijan as well as those from Interpol and the U.N. Development Program.

    The meeting will discuss practical issues and problems on drug law enforcement in the region to find ways and means on better cooperation between state governments and the UNDCP.

    The discussions will cover illicit heroin trafficking and abuse, electronic crimes or cyber crimes affecting drug trafficking strategy, maritime drug trafficking and control of stimulants in addition to reviewing the implementation of decisions taken at the previous meeting.

    Speaking at the opening session of the meeting, Burmese Minister of Home Affairs Colonel Tin Hlaing warned that the illicit trafficking of drugs has become a major transnational crime committed in the Asia-Pacific region, pointing out that the huge profits generated by the drug trade has triggered such incentives to traffickers that they do not heed anymore even to the death penalties prescribed in national legislation for drug crimes.

    Tin Hlaing, who is also chairman of the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control of Burma, warned that drug trafficking crimes have not only seriously undermined the economy, political and social fabrics, but also the stability of community peace and tranquillity and national security of country states.

    He expressed welcome of the initiatives taken by all member states and the U.N. in drafting the U.N. Convention against Transnational Crimes in Vienna to be signed next month at Palermo, Italy.

    He maintained that the fight against drug trafficking could neither be fought nor won by one country alone nor by leaving out one country, pointing out that drug traffickers take footholds in countries that lack or have weak anti-drug legislation, irrelevant enforcement strategies and outdated interdiction tactics.

    He said Burma has been committed to working together particularly with neighboring countries in the region, citing some bilateral agreements which have been reached with Vietnam, the Philippines and the Russian Federation as well as a tripartite agreement with Laos and Thailand.
    Five Burmese troops killed in clash with Shan fighters
    Source : Bangkok Post

    Five Burmese soldiers were killed yesterday in a clash with Shan State Army troops near the Shan state border, opposite Pang Ma Pha district.

    A source said Burmese soldiers and an SSA anti-drug team exchanged fire for almost an hour opposite Ban Mai Lan border pass.

    The SSA ambushed some 30 Burmese soldiers from the 316th Battalion who were delivering speed pills to Thailand from a drug plant in Ban Khai Luang. A large quantity of speed pills and two guns were seized, the source said.

    The attack was part of the SSA's anti-drug drive targeting the United Wa State Army and Burmese troops, who smuggle drugs to the border areas of Shan state for redistribution.

    Army chief Gen Surayud Chulanont yesterday visited 33 border villagers in Pai and Pang Ma Pha districts, which will be declared self-defence and anti-drug zones.

    In Tak, authorities plan to evacuate some 3,000 border villagers as fighting between Burmese troops and ethnic rebels is expected to escalate.

    Mae Sot district chief Satawat Sanmuk said Rangoon had sent some 2,000 fresh troops to the area over the weekend after losing a base to the Karen National Union.

    A senate sub-committee studying problems of ethnic refugees has urged talks on repatriation of Burmese refugees. Udon Tantisunthorn, its chairman, said Bangkok, Rangoon and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees should move to expedite repatriations since fighting in Burma had ceased.
    Burmese leader's visit points to a ''pragmatic'' India
    Source : MSNBC

    NEW DELHI, Nov. 14 -- The second most powerful member of Burma's ruling military was due to begin a week-long visit to India on Tuesday, demonstrating what commentators described as New Delhi's pragmatic approach to its eastern neighbour.

    General Maung Aye, vice chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and commander-in-chief of the army, is the most senior Burmese government member to visit India since the SPDC took power in 1998.

    An Indian foreign ministry official brushed off the contrast between New Delhi's frosty relations with military-ruled Pakistan and its efforts to foster strong ties with Rangoon.

    She also played down the issue of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy won Burma's elections in 1990 but has never been allowed to govern.

    ''We are as a country committed to democratic ideals and we as a country are committed to non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries,'' she told reporters.

    Burma has faced mounting international condemnation this year over its treatment of Suu Kyi and the NLD.

    Suu Kyi, whose mother was Burma's ambassador to India in the 1960s, has devoted admirers in New Delhi, where she went to school and university.

    Relations between the two countries cooled when India gave sanctuary to anti-government Burmese exiles after the military bloodily suppressed a 1988 uprising in Rangoon.

    But over the past decade New Delhi has put aside declarations placing Suu Kyi on a pedestal with its own independence heroes, and analysts say practical considerations have increasingly driven it to adopt a firm relationship with Rangoon.

    ''In rolling out the red carpet to a top gun from the military government of Myanmar, India is signalling a new phase in its relations with a very special neighbour and a readiness to pursue its interests in Asia with some vigour,'' commentator C. Raja Mohan wrote in The Hindu newspaper.

    INSURGENCIES, DRUGS

    Four northeastern Indian states -- Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh -- lie along the 1,600-km (1,000-mile) border between the two countries.

    India is looking to Burma to help curb separatist insurgencies in these states, whose rebels sometimes take refuge across the frontier, and both sides are working together to control a flourishing cross-border narcotics trade.

    They are also developing a 165-km (103-mile) road connecting India's national highway with Burma, opening the way for a boost to trade and linking the subcontinent to Southeast Asia.

    Bilateral trade between India and Burma was around $216 million in 1999/2000 (April-March). Most trade goes via Singapore because there are almost no shipping links between the countries.

    ''When the new road link...opens in a few weeks, the two countries would have taken the first step in realising the huge potential for trans-regional cooperation in the transportation and energy sectors,'' Mohan said.

    India says it is looking at whether there is scope for a cross-border hydroelectric project, and could be interested in buying natural gas from Burma if there were viable reserves.

    China's friendship with Burma is another consideration for India, which sees Beijing as a long-term potential threat despite a marked warming of relations in the past two years.

    ''...engagement with the military government has become a strategic compulsion because of China's growing influence in Myanmar,'' The Times of India said. ''India cannot afford to have China get cosy with a country bordering its eastern flank.''

    India has said in the past that it is aware of ''military collaboration between China and Myanmar,'' and has accused China of building an electronic surveillance base in Burma's Coco Islands in the Bay of Bengal.

    bURMA denied the charge and China branded it ''ridiculous.''

    The foreign ministry official, asked about the Coco Islands question, said: ''We have said that the Burmese government has told us that they would not allow their territory to be used by forces inimical to India's interests.''
    India NEEPCO set to sell power to Bangladesh, Burma
    Source : The Hindu (India)

    GUWAHATI--The Northeastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO), the hydel giant, is poised for a massive increase in its generating capacity and is looking beyond the region and beyond India's borders. It is planning to sell power to the southern States, Bangladesh and Burma.

    The NEEPCO has been supplying about 50 MW to West Bengal State Electricity Board from May.

    Bangladesh also has ``appreciable need of power'' and has shown keen interest in buying power from India, Mr. P.K. Chatterjee, Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of NEEPCO, told The Hindu in a chat here today.

    Transmission cost less.

    Talks are now on with Bangladesh to take the transmission line from the Northeast to West Bengal through Bangladesh. NEEPCO had the first round of talks with Bangladesh engineers at Agartala two months ago. A team of NEEPCO engineers will visit Dhaka to carry on the talks in January next year.

    NEEPCO had approached the External Affairs Ministry in this regard, Mr. Chatterjee said. Exploratory talks have also begun with ENRON.

    The proposed line through Bangladesh will facilitate power supply to Burma as Dawki, on the Indo-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya, is only about 100 km from the Burmese border.

    Mr. Chatterjee said NEEPCO was now generating 700 MW of power but the seven northeastern States were taking about 600 MW. With Ranganadi (405 MW) in Arunachal Pradesh coming up by September next year, NEEPCO's generating capacity will be 1105 MW.

    Several other hydel projects are in the pipeline. These include Turial (60 MW) and Tuivei (210 MW) in Mizoram; Kameng (600 MW) in Arunachal Pradesh; Tipaimukh (1500 MW) on Assam-Manipur-Mizoram trijunction; and Ramchandrapur (500 MW) in Tripura.

    Planning for evacuation of power had to begin now because most of the projects would be completed phase by phase by the end of the Ninth Plan, though some projects might spill over to the Tenth and Eleventh Plans too, Mr. Chatterjee said.
    Burma laments lack of cooperation in fight against drugs
    Rangoon, Nov 14 (AFP)

    Burma Tuesday reiterated complaints that the international community was doing nothing to help it fight the drug trade, as it opened a four-day regional anti-narcotics meeting here.

    Delegates from 19 countries as well as Interpol and the UN Drug Control Program attended the 24th Asia Pacific Heads of Law Enforcement Agencies meeting.

    Home Minister Colonel Tin Hlaing make a thinly veiled attack on the United States' refusal to work with the military regime over the issue, noting that "some responsible countries" had decided to boycott the meeting.

    "In this connection I'm sad to say that (they) do not harbour sincere intentions for cooperation with other countries," he said.

    Hlaing said Burma was willing to work "with whoever wants to work with us and help us."

    "This this end we have the doors wide open and are ready to show our efforts, our achievements as well as our shortcomings and to welcome the sincere assistance and cooperation of the international community."

    However, critics of the regime say that Burma is turning a blind eye to the massive drugs industry within its borders, in return for fragile ceasefires with the ethnic armies who now control the trade.

    Burma and Afghanistan are considered to be the world's top heroin producers, but newer and more profitable substances are fast becoming the stock in trade for Burma's drug lords.

    Thailand is becoming increasingly alarmed at the flood of methamphetamines which is making its way across the porous border and causing a massive addiction problem among its youth.

    More than 600,000 young Thais are believed to be hooked on "ya ba".

    A top Thai National Security Council official said last month that it was disappointed at the results from its cooperation with Burma in the battle against trafficking along the border.

    However, Burma has ignored the criticisms, insisting that it is making a sincere effort to control the drugs trade.

    The junta's first secretary, General Khin Nyunt, said at a meeting of the national drug abuse control committee earlier Tuesday that Burma was facing "one-sided accusations" despite its efforts to combat drugs.

    "Some countries are hatching plots designed to discredit Myanmar among the international community," he was quoted as saying in the official media.